annaliesemaree sides, snacks

making wheat thins

I wish I could take credit for this recipe. As an obsessive wheat thin eater, I knew when I saw Deb Perelman’s post on homemade wheat thins from earlier today that I had to try to make them too. (In my defense, while I do eat a lot of these crackers, I hadn’t realized until this was in fact posted today until I went to give her the credit for the recipe.) They taste a lot like the real thing – the thinner you can roll the dough, the crispier they’ll be. But like her, (and knowing myself) the yield to time spent ratio isn’t quite enough to keep me from buying family-sized boxes from the entirely, but I will definitely make these from time to time.

All credit goes to Smitten Kitchen! To read Deb’s post and see her recipe, click here.

*Deb mentioned that her crackers tasted butterier after sitting for a few days – but I noticed that mine tasted quite a bit butterier than the boxed wheat thins right out of the oven. This could be because I used Earth Balance in place of butter (recipe worked all the same.) In addition, I found that while I was rolling out the first half of the dough, the other half started to soften too much and became more difficult to work with. I would suggest keeping it cool in the fridge while you work.

annaliesemaree breakfast, recipes, san francisco, sides, travel

millet bread

It’s so good to have another option for breakfast. Last year when jon and I were visiting Anne in Philadelphia, we went to the reading terminal market as part of our downtown tour. amongst a million options, I ended up choosing a cup of coffee and millet muffin from metropolitan bakery: it was nutty, had a crunchy top but surprisingly light and pleasant middle, not too sweet. it was delicious. I’ve been meaning to attempt a replication ever since, and was inspired once again this morning when I woke up and saw the glass jar of millet sitting next to the sink. as I am currently without a muffin tin; I used a small loaf pan instead which worked great.

forty-five minutes later i had successfully recreated the market muffin in a small apartment kitchen in san francisco.

millet bread

(slightly adapted from 101 Cookbooks) 

1 1/8 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup raw millet

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup almond milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup melted butter

1/4 cup honey

1 T. lemon zest

1 T. lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and butter the loaf pan.

Combine the flour, millet, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, eggs, butter, honey, and lemon zest and juice until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the flour is just incorporated. Pour the mixture into the pan.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes, until the top is brown and just barely begins to crack. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then serve with honey butter.

*I substituted earth balance for butter to make the recipe dairy-free.

annaliesemaree appetizers, recipes, sides

parsley-feta hummus

sabra hummus has always been my favorite store-bought brand. it has a really smooth consistency & great flavor, with whole garbanzo beans and herbs on top. I wanted to try to create a rendition of the sabra hummus at home, and had a lot of parsley on hand, and this is what I came up with. traditional pesto with pine nuts, parmesan, basil and garlic would’ve been really good too I think, it just happened that I had a large jar of feta from last week’s black been tacos & walnuts in the fridge.

parsley-feta pesto:

blend one cup packed fresh parsley with one chopped green onion in a blender. add 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup olive oil, and blend until almost smooth. crumble 1/2 cup of feta and a handful of walnuts into the blender and pulse. add water to smooth if necessary.

even though a food processor is first on my list of “big things” to buy, I’ll admit that I like the consistency of hummus made in a blender even more.

basic hummus:

1 15 oz. can garbanzo beans

1/4 to 1/3 cup tahini

1-2 T. plain yogurt

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. salt

rinse and drain the garbanzo beans, reserving about a tablespoon. pour the rinsed beans into the blender, with the tahini, yogurt, salt, and lemon juice. add the oil, and turn the blender on. Add water until the consistency is how you’d like it. when the hummus was finished, I put about 1/4 of the pesto I had made into the hummus, mixing just slightly. throw the extra garbanzo beans on top.